Fluval Submersible Filter

[James From Cali]

Are these any good? I seen a couple of them at PetSmart for $19.99 for a 12g tank And I was thinking that would be really good to have intsead of a HOB or UGF. Any comments or experiences with these are great.

 

[mattistat]

i dont like them lol.. thats all im gonna say

 

[James From Cali]

LOL, okay. Well they seem to be good because PetSmart has them in their tanks(at least the goldies and Cichlid tanks). Those tanks are great looking!

 

[mattistat]

lol dint mean to be harsh but i dont like them lol. petsmart has clean looking tanks but i think the fish arn't healthy.

 

[James From Cali]

Yeah true. They hae alot of young fish except for one very large Oranda Goldfish wich is in a Quarantine(spl) tank. But they recieved that one sick.

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

hey james... no matter how clean a tank looks, remember that ammonia is clear. personally i dont have any esperience with them, but id rather have a HOB than just that. im sure that it would be fine doing both, but i wouldnt trust it alone.

 

[James From Cali]

Okay thanks. Yeah thats true that ammonia is clear. The thing is is that Im trying to find alot more things for me to hide instead of seeing the intake tube lol. I just hope my plants grow in faster lol.

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

if you get a black background the intake will blend in more. assuming your intake is black.... if not, you may just have to wait till your plants grow in. of you might try positioning a tall one in front of the intake.

 

[James From Cali]

I got a black garbage bag and it blends in somewhat lol. thanks for the ifdea tho.

 

[VirgoWolf]

I have a few that I got for free, they make great powerheads and add a little filtration, but I definitly woulden't use one as the main filtration unit.

 

[tmnterminator]

I use the Fluval 4 in my small turtle pond and it works great...keeps the water very clean...the only thing about using it in a tank is:

1) I think they look pretty ugly inside the tank. You know, with your gravel/substrate, deco, etc. and then this massive filter...so unless you can hide it, i wouldnt consdier it

2) Lack of ability to put in different media...there's basically room for 2 large pads to scoop up the crap, and 1 carbon media insert...There's no ability for bilogical media...

 

[VirgoWolf]

Nah, the second one isn't all that true, I upgraded mine, I have a pad at the bottom to catch the larger stuff, then carbon, then ceramic bio media and it's just the small Fluval 2 internal. I just used some extra media I had laying around, cut the pad to size, bagged up the ceramic media, threw in an aquaclear carbon bag and called it a day.

I hid mine behind a piece of driftwood, which works great since the flow from it goes right under the driftwood which has a cave my pleco likes to hide in, he seems to appreciate the extra current.

 

[James From Cali]

Thanks for all the info. If I ever setup another tank I might use one for extra current. I will plan on getting fish that appreciate currents.